LION
From LIS 460 Summer 2007
Literature Online
Literature Online (LION), created in 1996, is a literary database provided to subscription holders by ProQuest. This online site provides access to 350,000 English and American works of poetry, drama and prose. Users also benefit from 200 full text literary journals and a handful of online reference materials. Institution specific, LION enhances the literary experience of educators and students alike by providing nearly limitless materials through easy searches and retrievals.
Redesigned in 2004, LION updated its technology to include RSS feeds, bookmarking capabilities, and other features. To encourage easier searching, LION has clarified its search options and created the "Quick Search", which searches the entire site. It has implemented a new browse option for its journals and has made its results screens more easily navigable. There is support for librarians and educators, like lesson suggestions, MARC records, journal information and usage statistics. With these additions, LION commits itself to providing easy and rewarding searches for its subscribers.
Contents |
Main Screen
On the LION homepage, you will find:
-A "Quick Search" bar on the left that searches the whole site
-Three, more detailed search options (Author, Text, Criticism)
-Browse options for the entire site, journals (full-text), authors, or live footage of poetry readings
-An archive for saved search materials
-Information Centre with tips for navigation and content details
-"Reference Shelf" with access to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, Webster's Dictionary, Shakespeare Glossary, and the King James Bible
Searching
-Author Search: Users can search through a plethora of biographical material on many authors and poets. With a long list of search options, like ethnicity, nationality, or membership in a literary movement or period, it is easy to specify exactly whom the user is seeking. Results for these searches provide works by and criticism of the author and a biography. As with all search results, these are bookmarkable and archivable.
-Text Search: Users can search the text by title, author or keyword. They can limit their scope to genre or date, and can also consult numerous lists if they need assistance or suggestions.
-Searches can be performed with boolean operators, truncation, wildcards, where a "?" is placed within a word (i.e. wom?n to retrieve both women and woman), and typographical variants (i.e. revenge will also retrieve reuenge).
-Results Pages and Screens: Results pages are organized by genre and offer full text links to all hits. Selected results screens have red square "hit markers" to help users jump from hit to hit. The pages also link to more works from the same volume, related works, and citations for use in research.
Help Options
LION makes it very easy to seek help or answers to questions. It provides a demonstration on how to use its searches and highlights the components of the main screen. It clarifies the different parts of the search results and tells the user how to save or bookmark the results. This help can be found by clicking the "help" link or clicking on the "Information Centre" and selecting "Getting Started".
Use in the Media Center
LION would make an invaluable addition to a school media center. Its scope is so broad and it includes material that easily adds to the literature being used by teachers and students. The literature on LION already links to criticism and related material, which makes information for persuasive or analytical essays easily acquirable. This resource helps teachers or librarians looking for extra material for an author, genre, or movement unit. By organizing the literary works into genres, LION helps teach students the differences between types of literature. Providing such easy access to classic literature that dates as far back as 600 A.D. and extends to contemporary work, there is no reason that this database should be excluded from a middle or high school library, or any public library.
More Info
For more information on LION, visit LION at ProQuest
